Is this case scenario legal or illegal? Our daughter is currently in graduate school in Los Angeles. This summer (2009) she is doing an internship for a non-profit organization in Texas. Her university's policy states that it is mandatory for her to have an internship. Talk about exploitation! She's BORROWING and PAYING thousands of dollars (regular tuition rates) to work there for FREE, as part of her master's program in dietetics/nutrition. In turn, the university is sending some of that money to the non-profit organization. It's like she's donating money to be mis-treated! go figure. Last Wednesday she was singled out of 10-12 other interns and told to go into the organization's warehouse, which was like 110 degrees F, to count and label Ice Chests for 9 hours. There were 528 ice chests. She asked her supervisor how they wanted the inventory to be done, and whether she should use a spreadsheet or typed report form; her supervisor's response was, "You should already know how to do this. I'm not going to tell you anything." She obediently marched into the warehouse, wearing her required office attire with high heels..... she nearly passed out. Then, on Friday she was told she hadn't counted the smaller ice chests or labeled them separately from the larger ones (even though they had never instructed her to do so). Now she's back there again today, and we're afraid she may become sick, have a heat-stroke, or possibly pass out from the high temperature in the building. I told her to dial 9-1-1 and ask for an ambulance if she becomes sick in the non-ventilated warehouse today. I think the organization should foot the bill for making her sick. What kind of nutrition work-place skills is she learning, anyway? Her professors at the university have never specifically stated what her "job description" is supposed to be this summer....we're just curious how the warehouse is supposed to teach her "nutritional research methods!" We begged her to call her university advisor, but she said she didn't want to get a bad grade for the internship. And she won't report the workplace supervisor to an authority figure at the organization, because she's so afraid it will affect her Internship, and the grades they will give her. I am doing some research for an expose' on the exploitation of university student interns.... If you've ever been exploited through an internship position, whether through unreasonable demands, unhealthy working conditions, threats of a physical or sexual nature, or you've been over-worked for more than 40 hours, and generally feel they've taken advantage of your goodwill, please let me know! I am writing this article with no pre-conceived notions, but am aware that there must be more than just my daughter who is or has suffered while fulfilling an internship position. We can hardly wait until the internship is over, and her grades have been posted! Her father intends to press charges against this non-profit organization. And If you have any suggestions for us in the meantime, please feel free to comment